let's see if i can put this into my own words.
tom was telling me about a debate between a messianic jew, dr. michael brown, and a jewish rabbi. one of the points dr. brown made was for the point of Messiah coming before the destruction of the second temple. this is the point that i keep coming back to: Jesus came as the final offering, the one that takes away our sins in a way that a sheep or bull cannot. the second temple was destroyed in 70 AD (CE), shortly after Jesus died and was resurrected. sacrifices were no longer possible without the temple. Jesus fulfilled the torah when the Lord commanded sacrifices, not removing the importance of the temple but the importance of the sacrifice for the atonement of sins. this is why 1)Jesus makes sense as the Messiah, and 2)yom kippur is so important.
yom kippur is the day of atonement, and as people who believe that God is the only one that atones for our sin we should take the time to fast and pray and focus on what God has delivered us out of through His mercy. if we did not have God and His commandment for yom kippur we would not have forgiveness for our ugliness. if we did not have Jesus as Messiah, we, as non-jews, would still be in need of grace! being grafted in means we get to participate in the holy day to mourn our sins and then praise the Lord for His grace.
observe yom kippur on september 22, and obey his commandment (lev. 23:26-28).
2 comments:
Wonderful words to remind us that God's grace is SO what Jesus is/was all about. I remember being very moved as I came to understand the significance of the temple curtain being completely torn in two the moment Jesus breathed His last. No longer was there a barrier to God. No longer did we need the human priest to be our intermediary. We can now fully approach God's throne and lay our hearts before Him and be filled with His grace and mercy. Now THAT's what I call awesome.
isn't it so cool how God designed things from the very beginning to look like this? amazing.
Post a Comment